On December 9th, the International Anti-Corruption Day and upon the wrap-up of anticorruption week under #togetherwefix moto, KDI invited citizens to report corruption and to become part of real efforts to fight this phenomenon.
Through a press conference, KDI today presented annual results of the Advocacy and Legal Advice Center, an office which enables citizens to report corruption cases free of charge. A total 75 cases with more than 200 citizens have requested assistance from center’s legal advisor. Such assistance is provided for free to all witnesses or victims of corruption.
The most common nature of cases that were reported in 2016 relate to job openings within public institutions, followed by the case of medical specialists who were unemployed and were deprived of the right to equal access to work and the cases that have been largely delayed and not processed by courts.
Florent Spahija from KDI explained that the supportive actions taken by KDI – ALAC center have resulted in amending the state budget to fit the request of medical specialists for employment. Today, they are enjoying temporary employment and the long-term solution is being considered to guarantee their employment at Kosovo hospitals.
“Moreover ALAC produced a report highlighting the concrete court cases that are being prolonged by courts thus making public pressure to courts to process the cases as soon as possible. We invite citizens to be part of our efforts to fight corruption, by denouncing corruption any time at toll-free 0800 77 777 or e-mail [email protected]” added Spahija.
While Majlinda Kurti from KDI, highlighted that KDI has consistently provided recommendations through research papers in the areas of transparency, anti-corruption and public procurement. She said that if the recommendations have been taken into account, substantial results in fighting corruption would have been reached and more positive country reports would have arrived.
The well-known “'Zero tolerance on corruption' statement of our government, remains a promise which is not implemented. Citizens shared the same opinion in the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) which reported that 46% of respondents believe that government officials are corrupt. The results of this public opinion come at no surprise following all scandals that citizens were exposed to this year. In the beginning of 2016 we witnessed the case with “stents”, followed by corruption case “Pronto” and many more,” said Kurti.
“Of course these two large public corruption cases are translated into a citizen distrust in state institutions, because they primarily refer to health and employment, which are key factors for our own well-being. Therefore GCB's results which say that 65% of citizens think that corruption is one of the three biggest problems in the country make a complete sense “, she added.
After the conference, KDI distributed scarfs for citizens which were handmade, with the motto “Report corruption: call 0800 77 777” as symbolic of corruption-free products.